System for monitoring and recording motor vehicle operating parameters and other data

A system for managing vehicle parameter data, for use with a vehicle having a plurality of sensor devices positioned on the vehicle for sensing operating parameters of said vehicle and for generating vehicle parameter data in response thereto, said vehicle further having an onboard vehicle data network for receiving vehicle parameter data from said plurality of sensor devices, and a vehicle electrical power circuit operable between ON and OFF conditions to initiate and to cease operation of portions of said vehicle, respectively;

• the system comprising:
• a device for mounting on-board said vehicle;
• the device including a passive network connector for interconnecting a plurality of device network modules to the device to form a device network;
• the device further including a plurality of device network modules, said plurality of device network modules receiving electrical power from a device network electrical power source, and said plurality of device network modules requiring electrical power from said network electrical power source to operate, with operation of said device network modules being terminated following interruption of power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules;
• said plurality of device network modules connected to said passive network connector for data communication with one another;
• said plurality of device network modules including a vehicle interface module with a connector for connection to said vehicle data network to receive vehicle parameter data therefrom, and a control module having a central processing unit with program memory storage for storing an operating program for said central processing unit;
• said plurality of device network modules includes a power monitor module coupled to said vehicle electrical power circuit to sense the ON and OFF conditions thereof and to interrupt power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules in response to sensing an OFF condition of said vehicle electrical power circuit;
• said power monitor module including a time delay system for delaying interruption of power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules for a preselected time delay after an OFF condition of said vehicle electrical power circuit is sensed, the time delay being set by accessing said power monitor module through said device network;
• and
• said central processing unit and said vehicle interface module cooperating in accordance with said operating program to receive vehicle parameter data from said vehicle and to make said vehicle parameter data available to said device network.

A system for managing vehicle parameter data, for use with a vehicle a having a vehicle electrical power circuit operable between ON and OFF conditions to initiate and to cease operation of portions of said vehicle, respectively, said vehicle further having at least one sensor device positioned on the vehicle for sensing an operating parameter of said vehicle and for generating vehicle parameter data in response thereto, said vehicle further having an onboard vehicle data network for receiving vehicle parameter data from said at least one sensor device, the system comprising:

• a device for mounting on-board said vehicle;
• the device including a network connector for interconnecting a plurality of device network modules to the device to form a device network;
• the device further including a plurality of device network modules connected to said passive network connector for data communication with one another, said plurality of device network modules receiving electrical power from a device network electrical power source
• said plurality of device network modules including a sensor interface module with a connector for connection to said at least one sensor device to receive vehicle parameter data therefrom;
• said plurality of device network modules includes a power monitor module coupled to said vehicle electrical power circuit to sense the ON and OFF conditions thereof and to interrupt power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules in response to sensing an OFF condition of said vehicle electrical power circuit;
• said plurality of device network modules require electrical power from said network electrical power source to operate, with operation of said device network modules being terminated following interruption of power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules;
• and
• said power monitor module includes a time delay system for delaying interruption of power flow from said network electrical power source to said device network modules for a preselected time delay after an OFF condition of said vehicle electrical power circuit is sensed, the time delay being set by accessing said power monitor module through said device network.

A system for managing vehicle parameter data, for use with a vehicle having at least one sensor device positioned on the vehicle for sensing an operating parameter of said vehicle and for generating vehicle parameter data in response thereto, the system comprising:

• a first and a second device for mounting on-board said vehicle, each device including a network connector for interconnecting a plurality of device network modules to the device to form a device network, a plurality of device network modules connected to said network connector for data communication with one another, said plurality of device network modules including a control module having a central processing unit with a system clock and program memory storage for storing an operating program for said central processing unit;
• at least one of said devices having a sensor interface module with a connector for connection to said at least one sensor device to receive vehicle parameter data therefrom,
• the system clock of at least one of said devices being synchronizable to an external clock, and
• a synchronization communication link between said system clocks for synchronizing the system clocks of one device to the system clock of the other device.

A method for generating a data configuration structure used to configure a system for monitoring and recording analog parameter data generated by a vehicle-mounted transducer having a voltage-engineering units slope and network parameter data generated on a vehicle network, comprising the steps of:

• entering in the data configuration structure, for each analog parameter:
• a name of the parameter;
• voltage values defining the voltage-time slope of the transducer;
• engineering units to be assigned to the analog parameter data;
• storage bin values which must be exceeded before a change in parameter data is recognized;
• entering in the data configuration structure, for each network parameter, a name of the parameter, the vehicle network address of the parameter, scale and offset values for the parameter engineering units to be assigned to the vehicle network parameter, and storage bin values which must be exceeded before a change in parameter data is recognized;
• entering in the data configuration structure, for each analog parameter, a storage threshold data value which must be exceeded before a change in parameter data is recognized;
• entering in the data configuration structure, for each analog parameter and for each network parameter entered, a data representation format for parameter data;
• said data representation format including either a histogram format or a compressed time history format;
• entering in the data configuration structure, for each histogram format specified, bin ranges expressed in the engineering units assigned for the parameter receiving the data representation format;
• and
• entering in the data configuration structure for each compressed time history format specified, bin ranges, expressed in the engineering units assigned for the parameter receiving the data representation format, and a hysteresis value, expressed in the engineering units assigned for the parameter receiving the data representation format.